Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Rospotrebnadzor is the competent agency and that its official statements, not rumors or speculation, should be the guide following the death of a 28-year-old technician at the Irkutsk anti-plague research institute.


The technician, who died in a hospital in Shelekhov, had officially been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause, but Buryatia’s leader Alexei Tsydenov wrote that she had possibly died of plague. A regional outlet reported unofficially that nearly 200 people were under observation, and the director of a nearby aluminum plant called for calm, citing many rumors and conflicting reports.
